Do what I can with what I've got

Finally! Hardrock 2007 Write-up

It took a little longer than I thought to get this write up in the computer. With road tripping home and work travels I have been a bit busy in these post race recovery weeks. I actually hand wrote this report on a plane ride from the east coast and am now entering it as a blog entry. WARNING! This is long - but in 100 miles there is a lot to tell. Enjoy!

On July 13 I started what I billed as the most difficult run I would do to date. I remember thinking, “do you really realize where you are about to go and what you are going to do to yourself?” I also remember being filled with excitement and emotion standing amidst the other 129 Hardrock hopefuls. After three years of crewing and pacing it seemed unreal to me to be amongst the starters rather than on the other side cheering them on. Just getting to the starting line felt like an accomplishment, with all the preparation and time spent thinking about what it means to run Hardrock. I didn’t feel as prepared for this 100 compared to others I have trained for. I believe a level of confidence comes from putting the long training runs. I wasn’t able to train like I felt one should train for Hardrock due to a new job and busy travel schedule. I resolved that I would “do what I could with what I had” and keep in mind that the goal was to kiss the rock and earn the title of Hardrocker. Hindsight being a little “under trained” meant not as much confidence, but also more rested, which I think ended up being super key for a great run at Hardrock.

The two weeks prior to the race I spent training with Emily Baer, Mark Hartell & Scott Mills. We saw about 85% of the course on foot and caught rides or skipped the remaining miles. I wouldn’t normally run that many miles two weeks out from a big 100 mile event, but for this course seeing the passes and terrain is a key element of preparation. In the Northwest we don’t have the exposure or altitude that you find at Hardrock, so it was good to see and ensure that as long as you keep moving forward you will get over Handies (the 14er) and Grants Swamp (a steep scree slope at about mile 80) and the multitude of other climbs. Admittedly it was a bit daunting to run 20-30 mile sections, come back tired and hungry and realize that was only a quarter of what we would be doing on race day. How can anyone put that ALL together? Hardrock, as Scott Jurek said at the awards ceremony, is not an easy race. It keeps coming at you. The climbs and descents both are challenging and take a little bit out of you. The key for me was gauging how much to give on each one so that I wouldn’t “run out” before the finish line.

The week of the race was mellow in terms of running but a bit stressful in terms of preparation. It fascinates me the time and energy I end up putting into planning for a run this long. I had a wonderful crew of people show up from all over the west to help me move through these mountains. There was no reason I shouldn’t finish with all of the energy love a support I had coming my way. Such that I was totally intimidated, nervous and excited for Hardrock I told my crew that my goal was to kiss the rock before sundown on Saturday. I did not want to have to use my lights a second night. I made time splits for a 2pm (following Sue Johnston’s record from 2005) 4pm 6pm and 9pm. I sorted my Nathan Transition bag to have everything I might need and went over a crewing game plan.
Ma, Pa & Ben = Crew #1.
Karen Stan & Madison = Crew #2.
Darcy & Kyle = pacers
Steph – jumped from crew car to crew car to help as possible

Off like a herd of Turtles from the start, my last thought of Silverton was seeing Dale standing on the rock. Through town and up over to the Cunningham aid station. I enjoyed the company of all the runners and found myself checking my Suunto T6 for heart rate often and surprised that it was remaining low in spite of the excitement. My goal was to keep it in control through Ouray where I would lose the chest strap and just go on feeling from there. (never over 150)

Everyone met me at Cunningham and Madison at the river with my Balanced brought a smile to my face. The aid station was bustling with volunteers and crews. Stan, Karen & Madison walked me back to where Ma, Pa, Ben, Steph & Darcy were waiting. I swapped my two Thermal Draws for my Intensity vest and in a flurry was baby wiped down, coated in sunscreen, donned with Rudy Projects and sent on my way. Ben, Darcy & Steph walked/ran me out and I caught up to Scott Mills who had similar race goals. My pace wasn’t quite Scott’s at that point and after a bit I found myself along and in a bad head space. I really enjoyed all of the energy from my crew and being around the other runners. But now that it was me kind of spaced a part from others I could feel myself losing motivation. I kept eating, thought about turning on my shuffle and kept moving. Coming through Pole Creek before dropping into Sherman it started to sprinkle and rain. It was when the thunder cracked I let out a yell and Scott stopped mid-trail. We decided to run in together. Looking over at Handies I was thankful that crew #2 would be at Sherman with my rain coat – the mountain was socked in.

Again Madison met me with a Balanced and I ate & ate while Karen & Stan treated me to a leg rub. I was lucky enough to have them there as all I had to carry up the next four mile road section was a thermal draw. They met me at Burrows Park with my restocked Intensity and a Quesadilla for the climb over Handies.

Scott & I laughed that the road wasn’t as bad as we’d envisioned and when we got to the Handies Trail head I was relieved to see the weather had passed leaving only piles of pea sized hail at the roadside. It was here I saw Emily for the first time. She cruised over Handies putting about 10 minutes on me by the time we got to Grouse. Handies was tough for me, I remember dropping off the other side where Luis Escobar was taking photos. Fortunately I had the motivation that Ben would start pacing me from Grouse.

It was at Grouse that things started to really come around. All of the food I’d been eating was settling well, I got a hug from RD Dale and I had the energy of an excited pacer to get me over Engineer. We walked most of the up and Ben picked up quickly on what I needed to walk/hike and what I could/should run. I was getting excited about my splits, mostly because I wanted Ben to get to see the Bear Creek section in the day light. In my original plan I had us getting to the top of Engineer at sunset, Ben had me in the aid station at 9pm – we ran steady never fast, but didn’t waste time.

In Ouray I continued my trend of eating lots. Darcy was ready to take me the next 25 miles through Telluride to Chapman. We took lights and extra clothes and headed back up Camp Bird Road. I left the aid station with Emily – she had just breastfed Bernard – what a Mom! The four of us chatted our way out of town and up the road when Emily stopped to take the tape off her ankle; swelling was starting to make the supportive tape uncomfortable. Darcy and I kept chatting, running and walking and made great time up to Governors Basin. We passed Scott Jaime who was in a low point and Jeff Browning who was falling asleep on his feet; both still managed a bit of conversation. Paul Sweeney had just lost what ever he’d eaten, but was coming back around and I think a few other guys.

It was really dark with no moon or clouds so we could only make out what our headlights illuminated. There are a couple of splits in the road and I was paranoid about getting off course so was really happy to see the crew at Governors Basin. Gathering more calories I was surprised and bummed to hear a British accent speak up from a blanket behind the table. Mark Hartell was nauseous and dizzy and could no longer climb without feeling lightheaded. We tried to get him to come with us, but he felt he would be more of a detriment. I ate more (are you seeing a trend?) and took pumpkin pie and pb&j for the road. We continued up to Virginis Pass to the quiet notch where 3 guys helped us with water. From there is was five miles down to Telluride and getting to see crew again.

On this decent we caught up to Ty Draney who was suffering from the pukes but still managed to pull together and run into the aid station with us. The crews had everything laid out and it was nice to get hugs from Pa and Ben as we walked in. Darcy made me laugh when she told my Pa that I was “kicking a$$”. I started adding soup and caffeine in the form of iced tea to the mix. Darcy kept me rolling and we were laughing and chatting on the road climb out of Telluride. It was this nine miles section that I started to question – had I pushed too hard out of Ouray? In the moment I would not have said I was sleepy, but hindsight some extra caffeine would have helped. I was moving slow, Darcy had to wait and as a result I was getting cold. It is a long climb over Oscars and a rough descent into Chapman. We had an icy butt scoot across the top but she kept me moving, eating and drinking and we finally made our way down into Chapman just behind Paul Sweeney who caught us at the top of the rocky descent.

My crew did a great job of revving me up again, the sun was just waking up as well and Kyle, who just finished pacing James was ready to take me home.

18 miles, 2 big climbs, still a ways to go. I asked Kyle what was going on up front and he said well you’re in 4th! I was actually in 5th he didn’t know Paul had gone through. What?!?! Where did everyone go? Turned out Scott was well in the lead, Karl had taken a two hour nap at Chapman. James got into Chapman but was a mess; Jared had left a couple of minutes before me and Paul just after him. We caught Paul on the Grants Swamp climb. His comment to me when I stopped to see how he was doing was “Oh just go on and get your course record.” Poor Kyle was fighting a stomach bug that apparently had been passed around through a few Hardrockers and was having to stop frequently. Fortunately he is a very talented runner (for those that don’t know Kyle recently won Jemez & Lake City) and had no problem catching up in fact was waiting more on me.

Grants Swamp was slow but steady and we moved well into KT but I will be the first to admit I was more than a little discouraged climbing over to Putnam. That climb seemed to go on forever. And just when I thought we’d started the downhill we had one more pitch. I whined a bit, but kept moving and at this point started looking over my shoulder. We finally topped out and moved over to the saddle before descending. On this descent I questioned my quads. Not much left and I wondered about the remaining miles to the finish.

As we go closer to the Putnam aid station (which is 6 miles from the finish) Kyle started doing the math and asked me what the women’s course record was. I told him that Sue’s was 32 hours for this direction and that I thought Betsey Kalmeyer's in the other direction was around 29:42. It was nearing 10am… if I could run six miles in less than one and a half hours I could possibly get both. After a few minutes of running and thinking I told Kyle I didn’t want to stop at the aid station, just drink a coke and go. Well I ate turkey too, but we moved right through only a couple of minutes back from Jared. Kyle talked me down the technical trail and then really started moving (it felt like it to me). With my mind on the course record I did my best to follow his stride and keep up. We caught Jared only a couple of minutes from the river and by then I was wondering where this energy was coming from. Here I thought my legs were shot. I’d also totally spaced on what catching Jared would mean as far as results, my focus was on time. We crossed the river and I was disappointed my crew wasn’t there like we’d talked about, but smiled when I thought that maybe we were going to surprise them.

In pre-running this section of the course I actually got a bit emotional thinking about finishing Hardrock. I warned Kyle early on that I didn’t know if those emotions would come up again or not. When we were hiking up from the river/road crossing I told him not to worry – I was working too hard to get emotional.

With only a couple of miles to go, the course record and 3rd overall pretty much secured Kyle was amazing in keeping me going and controlled. He reminded me that a gel would help in the last couple of miles, eased me off the pace a bit so that I wouldn’t blow up and could actually enjoy the finish and kept talking me through what was next. All of this in spite of the fact that he had only had a bag of Shot bloks in the 5+ hours he’d been with me and had stopped who knows how many times. We ran in smoothly and walked the last hill on Shrine road. We were met on the trail turnoff leading down into town by Ben, Darcy, Madison, Stan, Karen & Catherine to run the last quarter miles to the finish. Ma and Pa were around the corner from the rock so I could see them before rounding the corner to stare at that beautifully painted rock that only had two kisses on it yet. The group dropped off and let me stop the clock with my kiss. Steve Pero, accent and all was there at the rock – the guy I had heard call Steph a Hardrocker when I paced her 3 years prior. I was more than pleased to have him now say it to me.

I sat down in front of that rock to look back at all of the people, friends and family cheering and taking pictures; the emotion suddenly and overwhelmingly hit me at that moment. All the effort of the year and specifically the two weeks prior came together for me to sit in front of that rock and breath.

Dale came over to award me a finisher’s medal and said “I’ve been waiting a long time to do this.” I then got to shed my pack and share hugs with the crew of people that saw me through the day, night and morning.

Hardrock holds a very special place for me and is a highlight of the year each year (this and Coyote Four-Play) in terms of events I return to year after year. I look forward to returning to Hardrock in any capacity, pacer crew or runner…

I hate to say this last bit, but as I was leaving the gym after the awards ceremony on Sunday I overheard someone tell their crew “well I have to return next year and finish in the other directions to be a true Hardrocker.”